Respect and honor were taken out of the schools when prayer ended. Be you a Christian or not it's a learning curve to think about and teaches kids to know right from wrong. Ta…ke a look at Columbine (kids being bullied and retaliating back at classmates and teachers) and just recently a University tragedy. Kids can be cruel. Gee, perhaps they should take the National Anthem of the U.S. and Canada out next and burn the flags! Answer Yeah, it probably wouldn't make anything better, though! Answer prayer was taken out of schools in 1962. in my opinion its NOT a good thing that they did that because we all need prayer and maybe things would get better in schools if they put prayer back in.

Amber Supko In 1963 there started to be some people against the Lord's Prayer in public schools. Stew731 The U. S. Supreme Court issued two bans. One in 1962 and the seco…nd in 1963. Both bans were the result of lawsuits against the teaching of religion and religious practices in public schools. Basically stating that organized prayer in schools was a violation of the separation of church and state. It was decided that publicly funded schools were an extension of the state, and that organized prayer or Bible readings were a form of proselytizing. The bans not only banned mandatory prayer in schools but also banned the daily reading of bible passages. The lawsuits were supported by several organizations but the most outspoken supporter for banning prayer in schools came from Madalyn Murray O'Hair, the founder of American Atheists, Inc.

A. Young People1. For 15 years before 1963 pregnancies in girls ages 15 through 19 years had been no more than 15 per thousand After 1963 pregnancies increased 187% in the nex…t 15 years. 2. For younger girls, ages 10 to 14 years, pregnancies since 1963 are up 553%. 3. Before 1963 sexually transmitted diseases among students were 400 per 100,000. Since 1963, they were up 226% in the next 12 years. B. The Family1. Before 1963 divorce rates had been declining for 15 years. After 1963 divorces increased 300% each year for the next 15 years. 2. Since 1963 unmarried people living together is up 353% 3. Since 1963 single parent families are up 140%. 4. Since 1963 single parent families with children are up 160%. C. Education1. The educational standard of measure has been the SAT scores. SAT scores had been steady for many years before 1963. From 1963 they rapidly declined for 18 consecutive years, even though the same test has been used since 1941. 2. In 1974-75 the rate of decline of the SAT scores decreased, even though they continued to decline. That was when there was an explosion of private religious schools. There were only 1000 Christian schools in 1965. Between 1974 to 1984 they increased to 32,000. a. That could have an impact if the private schools had higher SAT scores. In checking with the SAT Board it was found that indeed the SAT scores for private schools were nearly 100 points higher than public schools. b. In fact the scores were at the point where the public schools had been before their decline started in 1963 when prayer and Bible reading/ instruction was removed from the schools. c. The scores in the public schools were still declining. 3. Of the nation's top academic scholars, three times as many come from private religious schools, which operate on one-third the funds as do the public schools. D. The Nation 1. Since 1963 violent crime has increased 544%. 3. Illegal drugs have become an enormous & uncontrollable problem. 2. The nation has been deprived of an estimated 30 million citizens through legal abortions just since 1973. excerpt from http://www.inplainsite.org/what_happened_when_the_praying.html Response The statistics posted above lack citation of any paper at the source link given. As such, it lacks critical information in determining the validity of the statistics. However, if one is willing to look, these statistics are readily available. In any case, many of the statistics may be completely unrelated to having prayer in school. It is more likely however that it was the removal of christian teachings and the moral values they instilled into students that is the root cause of many of these statics. While moral principles have continued to decline, so has the measurable moral fiber in the definition of what a Christian is. Today a large number of non-bible reading people call them self's Christians who are fringe followers at best. In fact some Christians today deny they believe in Jesus Christ, who encompasses the total basis behind Christianity. With his in hand, the following arguments are used to debate the above facts. Under "A. Young People" None of these statistics show evidence of having been caused by not praying in school. This would more likely be due to improper teaching of sexual education, in particular about proper protection via condoms and contraception. Such policies are usually taught by "abstinence only" curriculums which are generally used in the more religious areas. As all statistics of areas which teach "abstinence only" show an increase in pregnancy and STDs as compared to areas which teach a full sex education course, it should be concluded lack of sex education is the factor, not a lack of prayer. Under "B. The Family" 1.) Unless children are getting married in grade school and high school, lack of prayer in school would not be a factor in divorce rates. 2.) People living together before they are married has been shown to have very little significance on divorce rates, especially if the couple is engaged to be married before moving in together. The biggest factors in divorce lie in other factors, not among when people start living together. 3.) Divorce rates are HIGHEST among born again christians and jews, and LOWEST among atheists/agnostics. If lack of prayer in school is a factor, it's a good thing for divorce rates. Under "C. Education" This entire section says nothing about the increased cuts for public eduction and uses only the SAT as the guage. As the SAT is generally used on the coasts while the ACT is used throughout the middle of the USA, including most of the Bible Belt. Also surprising is that this test was first used 1959, just a few years before the afformentioned decrease in SAT scores. It also neglects to mention that throughout the 50s, 60s, and 70s, the test was not standardized. Time periods for sections constantly changed as well as what the sections tested. Since the tests changed, one can not expect the average scores to remain the same under these conditions. Under "D. The Nation" 1.) This only shows an increase in crime, not who perpetrated the crime. As the Christian population today is 75% of the general population and also 75% of the prison population, but athests are 15% of the general population and only .02% of the prison population, it seem that not praying would make you less likely to commit crimes. 2.) Being that illegal drugs are mostly come from imports, we can safetly conclude that lack of prayer in school is not a cause for increased drug activity. 3.) The increase in abortion may also be attributed to an increase in pregnancies caused by lack of sex education and a professed dislike of protection by the Pope. If we wish a decrease in abortions, we should stop teaching religious policies of "abstinence only" and provide real information about protection and contraception. In addition, many abortions are only done due to the mother being at risk to carry the child past where the fetus could be removed into ICU, let alone to carry the child to term. It has nothing to do with any theological point of view, but only on what is best to keep the mother alive.

Madeline Murray O'Hare.
But, it wasn't a campaign to remove prayer from schools. It was a campaign to remove FORCED prayer from schools. Anyone who wishes to may pray in a pu…blic school, really. This is totally legal and constitutionally protected. What was not constitutionally protected was having teachers or school officials conduct a prayer session..
To the best of my knowledge, no one has ever seriously attempted to make praying in a school illegal.

In 1963, Madalyn Murray O'Hair won a lawsuit against the Baltimore School System, which voted in her favor 8-1 to ban school prayer and label it "unconstitutional". Though no…t all prayer was immediately banned from schools at that time, through a process of time, almost all school prayer is banned today.

The ability to legally pray in schools has been, and should always be, protected by the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment to the US Constitution. It is at the very h…eart of freedom of religion. It is a commonly held misconception that the practice of religious exercises is forbidden in schools; what is forbidden is organized prayer, or any form of religious exercise sponsored or endorsed by the school. In two landmark cases, Engle v. Vitale, (1962) and Abington School District v. Schempp, (1963), the Supreme Court decided that public schools, as an entity supported by government tax money, cannot constitutionally lead students in any sort of prayer. To do so would reflect an endorsement of one religion over another (or of any religion over none), which is a violation of the First Amendment Establishment Clause. Unfortunately, since then, it has been a commonly held belief that this extends to students being able to pray to themselves or read religious texts. This is entirely untrue. Students are allowed to pray and read religious texts, so long as they do not disrupt other students. They may do this at any time, including before, during, and after school hours. School clubs which are religious in nature are still allowed to exist and practice worship freely. It was ruled Westside Community Board of Education v. Mergens, (1990) that as long as any school clubs are allowed to exist, so should religious clubs be allowed to exist. The reasoning is that students join clubs freely and voluntarily, and thus are free to leave at any time. So there is no such thing as a "Prayer Ban". There is, however such thing as a "Ban on ORGANIZED (school-sponsored) Prayer."

I have a debate on prayer in school. For or against. So I needed to know if possible, the statistics, about violence before and after prayer was taken out of school. Go H…ere: http://whatyouknowmightnotbeso.com/graphs.html These graphs show different statistical information based on the affects from prayer being banned out of school.

I remember prayer in school. We usually recited the "Lords Prayer". -also- "The Regent'sSchool Prayer" (Engel v. Vitale,1962) The New York education system adopted aschool …prayer to be said before the start of each day's classes. Thisprayer promoted good moral character, provided spiritual training, and helped combat juvenile delinquency. The regents wrote aschool prayer that was non-sectarian or denominational. In fact, it was so bland that it became known as the "to whom it may concernprayer." Here it is: "Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence upon thee, and we beg Thy blessings upon us, our parents, our teachers and our Country."

Public schools do not have morning prayers or even speak of Jesus. If any of the teachers do, they will be fired and there are severe penalties for mentioning God's name. Some… schools are considering taking out the pledge of allegiance because it says, "One nation, under God" What ever happened to freedome of speach? Freedom of religion? None of that matters to people. It's the main reason why we came to America! Why must we praise a flag, instead of praising the Living God??? Right now, as you can see, not many kids are into church or the Bible, this has caused an affect on their attitudes. It says in the Bible, "Honor thy father and thy mother," not many kids live up to that. This is one of the affects since praying was banned.

The bible has never been in the school systems as a teaching tool or used in the classroom. Our Constitution cites the freedom of religion as part of the Bill of Rights so we …do not have a national religion. The founding fathers were very clear on this concerning the separation of church and state. Because of this whose religion would you use in schools ? A child may pray if they wish and they may have a "bible club" or a religious club, but the teaching of a particular religion or to say a prayer school wide is not something that is done in the educational system. When religion is taught no one religion is featured instead all are approached as part of the curriculum. The teaching of religion has always been left to parents. In the early colonies parents often taught children from the family bible, but the colonial schools didn't teach from the bible.

History of the United States

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I am a perpetual student who strives to learn more everyday to improve my teaching skills. As a special education teacher, becoming creative to help a student learn a skill often requires unusual techniques. Currently I am in the last 6 months of my Masters degree in Creative Writing with… (MORE)